Tag Archives: technique

Tips for Writers: Just Show Up!

Posted on March 5, 2026 by mitchteemley

Tips for Writers: Just Show Up! Your Daily Leap of Faith Underpinning the encouragement in a previous Tips for Writers, is the fact that a leap of faith is involved in believing you’ll have any idea what to write once … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Humor, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 61 Comments

Writers: How to Use Dramatic Reversals

Posted on July 17, 2025 by mitchteemley

Source: The Phoblographer Tips for Writers Dramatic tension is the key to an engaging storyline. Or even an essay or blog post, for that matter. This takes the form of rising action, a series of reversals–escalating problems or crises–that must … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Humor, The Wishing Map, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Here’s Why Being Funny Matters

Posted on March 20, 2025 by mitchteemley

How to Be Funny Whether you’re a writer, teacher, politician or mortician, this three-part series will help you be wittier — or I’ll refund every penny you’ve paid! My first career was about funny. I spent 13+ years in sketch … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Quips and Quotes, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Tips for Writers: Dynamic Writing!

Posted on July 31, 2024 by mitchteemley

BAH-da-da-DAHHhhh! BAH-da-da-DAHHHhhhh! Even if you’re not a classical music fan, you know the iconic opening from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Beethoven is the pin-up boy for one of the most important of all creative techniques: dynamics. In a nutshell, dynamics is … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Quips and Quotes, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Tips for Writers: Are You a Vulcan or a Klingon?

Posted on July 10, 2024 by mitchteemley

Whether you’re a get-to-the-point communicator or a wild-and-wooly wordsmith, you’ll be a better writer if you tap both sides of your brain: the logical, pragmatic, Vulcan side, and the intuitive, sensory, Klingon side. How? By employing words from the two … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Quips and Quotes, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Tips for Writers: Read Together

Posted on September 28, 2023 by mitchteemley

Photos by cottonbro studios “Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” ~Jean Rhys Perhaps the most universal piece of advice for writers is, “Read, read, read!” … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Humor, Quips and Quotes, Story Power, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 29 Comments

Tips for Writers: Subconscious Mannerisms

Posted on August 24, 2023 by mitchteemley

My high school drama teacher had a quirky habit: first he’d pull on his nose, and then he’d push on it. One day, in the midst of a discussion about mannerisms, he told us where this habit came from: As … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 34 Comments

Tips for Writers: On Universality

Posted on June 8, 2023 by mitchteemley

There may be writers who want to alienate their readers. (I can’t think of any, off-hand, perhaps because they’ve been so successful in achieving their goal.) But the rest of us want to draw our readers in. We want them … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Memoir, Story Power, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 43 Comments

Tips for Writers: Learn to Love the Burn

Posted on May 18, 2023 by mitchteemley

The key to building muscles, oddly enough, is to regularly and repeatedly expose yourself to pain. Not too much, not too little. Too much—torn muscles, tendonitis, bone spurs—is bad news. Too little is no news at all. Muscles grow when … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Story Power, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 57 Comments

Tips for Writers: Write What You Know?

Posted on April 27, 2023 by mitchteemley

A successful writer friend once went tiradical on me when I mentioned the literary admonition, “Write what you know.” “I hate that!” she shouted. “Why?” “It restricts you! What if you want to write about something you’ve never experienced?” Interestingly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Story Power, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 49 Comments